Humorous CMU Marketing Campaign presented to Academic Senate
Melinda Grossmeyer (left), Abby Dean (middle) and John Veilleux (right) from university communications pose for a photo in French Auditorium after presenting this year's marketing campaign to the academic senate on Nov. 28, 2023.
University Communications put a silly twist on its marketing approach, and three degree programs were deleted during Tuesday's meeting of the Academic Senate.
New marketing campaign
The University Communications team presented a new advertising promotion. John Veilleux, Abby Dean and Melinda Grossmeyer showed it to the Senate during the board's bi-weekly meeting.
They said their main target was to have 12-24 year olds remember CMU. To reach their audience, they are tapping into humor, jobs and the existing "We do" campaign.
“90% remember a brand that uses humor in advertisement that uses humor, 91% prefer it, and 48% don’t feel like they have a relationship with the brand if they haven’t made them laugh or smile,” Dean, the executive director of integrated marketing, said.
The team also presented data from the Wall Street Journal which showed in the past decade, the majority of Americans have shifted to believing a four-year degree is worth it.
“Graduates leave with debt and they also leave without skills that help them earn a job,” Dean said.
To entice those whose priority is to get a job after college and get the general audience, they included how Central Michigan University could land students jobs, with a sprinkle of jokes throughout the advertisements.
Michael Armisted is currently a CMU student, and also the main actor throughout all of these commercials. Digitally, these ads can be on TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch. The university also has 44 billboards across the state.
Changes to available majors
Three language degrees that have been on hiatus have been deleted.
- French Major, B.S Ed
- German Major, B.S Ed
- Spanish Major, B.S Ed
In the addition, a Health and Physical Education Graduate Certificate has been created.
Also announced at the meeting were the meetings of the CMU Board of Trustees, happening over two days. Both can be watched over livestream on the main website.
- Wednesday, for committee meetings, starting at 1:30 p.m.
- Thursday, for the full session starting at 10 a.m.
Future Academic Senate meetings will occur at 3:30 p.m. every other Tuesday at the EHS Building in the French Auditorium. Livestreams of this meeting and all future meetings can be found on CMU’s website.
